No homily at Mass today

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DaveBj

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…just a 20-minute oral report by our pastor on the status of the parish school and how it’s recovering from $400k+ worth of managerial mistakes last year.

I have no documentation to back up this personal opinion, but I believe that a homily should be a homily, and that a report on the financial status of the school should be given after the final blessing, and after those who are not interested have had an opportunity to escape.

Sigh.

😦
 
Hi,

I would agree with you there on that one. Here’s some documentation that will help you.

From the General Instruction of the Roman Missal

#65
The homily is part of the Liturgy and is strongly recommended for it is necessary for the nurturing of the Christain life. It should be an exposition of some aspect of the readings from Sacred Scripture or of another text from the Ordinary or from the Proper of the Mass of the day and should take into account both the mystery being celebrated and the particular needs of the listeners.
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Financial updates completely out of norm here.

Code of Canon Law

Canon 767
Pargraph 1 - Among the forms of preaching the homily is preeminent; it is part of the liturgy and is reserved to a PRIEST or to a DEACON; in the homily the mysteries of faith and the norms of CHristian living are to be expounded from the sacred text throughout the course of the liturgical year.
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Paragraph 4 - IT IS THE DUTY of the pastor or the rector of a church to see to it that these prescriptions are conscientiously observed.
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God bless.
 
I would agree that a financial report isn’t a homily. If it’s any consolation to you, we had no Gloria at Mass today. The other weeks it was the Penitential Rite. I wonder what next week won’t bring :rolleyes:.😦
 
DaveBj said:
…just a 20-minute oral report by our pastor on the status of the parish school and how it’s recovering from $400k+ worth of managerial mistakes last year.

I have no documentation to back up this personal opinion, but I believe that a homily should be a homily, and that a report on the financial status of the school should be given after the final blessing, and after those who are not interested have had an opportunity to escape.

Sigh.

😦
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priests are not perfect…:eek:
 
DaveBj said:
…just a 20-minute oral report by our pastor on the status of the parish school and how it’s recovering from $400k+ worth of managerial mistakes last year.

I have no documentation to back up this personal opinion, but I believe that a homily should be a homily, and that a report on the financial status of the school should be given after the final blessing, and after those who are not interested have had an opportunity to escape.

Sigh.

😦
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This sort of thing is pretty normal to get once a year or so. It’s definitely boring, though.
 
We usually attend the 11:00 a.m. Mass, which is the last of the three Sunday Masses. I’m going to have to coopt a spy among the regular attenders of the 5:30 p.m. vigil mass the previous evening to snitch and let me know when something like this is happening. Then we can go to one of the four monasteries in the county.

DaveBj
 
DaveBj said:
…just a 20-minute oral report by our pastor on the status of the parish school and how it’s recovering from $400k+ worth of managerial mistakes last year.

I have no documentation to back up this personal opinion, but I believe that a homily should be a homily, and that a report on the financial status of the school should be given after the final blessing, **and after those who are not interested have had an opportunity to escape.
**
Sigh.

😦
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Which is probably exactly why the priest did it during the Mass, so you would all be held captive and he could be sure everyone has been told instead of him talking to your backs as you scooted out the door.

Our pastor would have done his usual 30-40 minute homily (yes really) and THEN done the financial report as well, so count yourself lucky.
 
Every parish I have ever belonged to has at least once a year had a talk about the financial status of the parish. I recall pre-changes to the Mass that sermons were often about finances and how people need to donate more. In fact I remember my parents stopped going to Mass because all they talked about was money.

In these days it is important to be very transparent about the financial situation of the parish and Sunday mass is probably the best time to talk about it because you at least get the largest group of donating parishioners and may convince those who don’t donate to do so. We can’t do it after Mass because 1/3 of the congregation is already out the door or will leave as soon as they hear the talk is about money.

The pastor is being very responsible in informing the people of the state of the parish. Probably what would be best to do is find a way to relate the readings to support of the parish and then give the report. I work for a parish and I can tell you that usually after these talks we see an increase in collections, so they work and are necessary at times.
 
Stylites said:
AND there’s still a few openings available for anyone who thinks they have a calling to serve God in this special way and who think they can do a better job.
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Sorry, unfortunately they’ll be sinners too and maybe with them you will miss the present priest ! My experience !! Cheers:)
 
The homily is part of the Liturgy and is strongly recommended for it is necessary for the nurturing of the Christain life. It should be an exposition of some aspect of the readings from Sacred Scripture or of another text from the Ordinary or from the Proper of the Mass of the day and should take into account both the mystery being celebrated and the particular needs of the listeners.
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The 'particular need of the listeners, may justify the financial report. As in Jesus time the hunger of the Apostles justified the break of Sabbath Law, so the need of the school may justify to break the strongly recommended advise for homily too.

In every year when there is appeal for the diocesan need the homily is substituted by the audio from the bishop and the instruction how to fill up the forms.

The homily is the result of Vatican II and the new lectionary, before that priests made sermons, about freely chosen topics, many times actualities of the parish.
 
laszlo said:
The 'particular need of the listeners, may justify the financial report. As in Jesus time the hunger of the Apostles justified the break of Sabbath Law, so the need of the school may justify to break the strongly recommended advise for homily too.

In every year when there is appeal for the diocesan need the homily is substituted by the audio from the bishop and the instruction how to fill up the forms.

The homily is the result of Vatican II and the new lectionary, before that priests made sermons, about freely chosen topics, many times actualities of the parish.
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Needed to take into account the full sentence of that statement. Let me go ahead and quote it once more.
…should take into account both the mystery being celebrated and the particular needs of the listeners.
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I dont mind a financial reports AFTER the homily, but as the homily it fails to take into account the mystery being celebrated.

God bless.
 
Boy, we are taken as a desorganized country and you, America as an organized one. Cant you find another solution?
  1. ]put the finantial report on the internet page of the parish]put it on the billboard*]if 1 page, give it in photocopy to each family*]if big, sell it to the ones who cared (I would not) for a profit and give the profit to the poor*]and so on:thumbsup:
 
supertubos said:
Boy, we are taken as a desorganized country and you, America as an organized one. Cant you find another solution?
  1. ]put the finantial report on the internet page of the parish]put it on the billboard*]if 1 page, give it in photocopy to each family*]if big, sell it to the ones who cared (I would not) for a profit and give the profit to the poor*]and so on:thumbsup:
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  1. Yes, we also do many of those things you listed, but the truth is most don’t read it. We have had people come up to us and say that we should be disclosing our financial situation to them. They are surprised to discover that it has been in the bulletin, on our web site and mailed home. Not everyone reads this stuff. At least at mass you have a captive audience and if they complain they didn’t hear it well that means they weren’t at mass.
 
Joannm said:
Yes, we also do many of those things you listed, but the truth is most don’t read it. We have had people come up to us and say that we should be disclosing our financial situation to them. They are surprised to discover that it has been in the bulletin, on our web site and mailed home. Not everyone reads this stuff. At least at mass you have a captive audience and if they complain they didn’t hear it well that means they weren’t at mass.
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Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
I thought those things only happened in a desorganized country like mine, in Portugal and not in the Usa!

  1. *]you post it in bulletin board internet and so on
    *]those who are interested read, right!
    *]those who are not interested, dont read, ok?
    *]those who are interested dont need to be masscred with the same in a sermon!
    *]those who are not interested wont listen for they will be thningk on what to do for dinner or on the golf or other things I wont mention
    *]those who read can complain
    *]those who did not read cannot complain for like in everyday like the absence of lknowledge of the law does not make one unaccountable ofr instance in traffic violation
    *]“captive audience” is a christian strategy? Never heard of it !!!
    *]if one who has not read complains, he has made 2 mistakes: 1) not read; 2) complain without reading,

    👍
 
This sort of thing has taken place at all the parishes I’ve ever been a member of, back to the 1950’s - so this is at least one thing folks can’t blame on Vatican II.
 
The priest is in a no win situation here. If he does not stand up there and disclose financial information once and a while during the mass he will get complaints regarding a lack of transparency from the openness hawks. If he does do it, he gets complaints from the liturgy hawks. Regardless of how much this information is publicized in the bulletin, website, newsletters, etc. the priest will still get complaints if it is not announced and as others have mentioned, most don’t read those things no matter how many times they are sent.

Our parish was in serious financial trouble a while back and the pastor and parish council scheduled multiple “town meetings” for the parish so that people could come and discuss the situation, ask questions, and offer suggestions for consideration. Out of 900+ families in the parish, less than 1% attendance was achieved. Following that, the pastor and the council solicited written questions and opinions via letter or e-mail and still hardly anyone participated. So, the council and the pastor just decided to act. Then, they announced their decisions and everyone lost their mind because they didn’t like it and felt they weren’t informed. 🤷

Bottom line, the priest is in a tough spot and he is doing what he thinks is best based on a balance of all of the situation, not just one day’s worth of the mass.
 
RE:

The pastor probably gave the statistics in lieu of the homily because everyone is at church; as you indicated, if he did it after mass, you wouldn’t see too many people.

In regards to the GLoria,l it is up to the presiding priest.

I know as a fact during Ordinary TIme, the Glorias is never said

In all reality, if something is missing from the mass, the mass become invalid and illicit and the priest is aware of it.

Even if the priest makes up his own words for Consecration, it would make the mass invalid and illicit.

There are many priests who do things not in accordance with the rubrics of mass and they know it will be invalid.
 
Jim_Roberts said:
RE:

The pastor probably gave the statistics in lieu of the homily because everyone is at church; as you indicated, if he did it after mass, you wouldn’t see too many people.

In regards to the GLoria,l it is up to the presiding priest.

I know as a fact during Ordinary TIme, the Glorias is never said

In all reality, if something is missing from the mass, the mass become invalid and illicit and the priest is aware of it.

Even if the priest makes up his own words for Consecration, it would make the mass invalid and illicit.

There are many priests who do things not in accordance with the rubrics of mass and they know it will be invalid.
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The Gloria is absolutely said during ordinary time. It can be omitted, but we sing it every Sunday regardless of the liturgical season.
 
nicolep said:
The Gloria is absolutely said during ordinary time. It can be omitted, but we sing it every Sunday regardless of the liturgical season.
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The Gloria cannot be omitted on Sundays in OT. The rubric says:
It is sung or said on Sundays outside the Seasons of Advent and Lent, on solemnities and feasts, and at special celebrations of a more solemn character. (GIRM 53)
 
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